Cards on the Table

Agatha Christie

Christie is best known for detective and crime fiction—puzzle-driven mysteries featuring closed-circle murders, careful plotting, and character-led investigations.

Notable titles include And Then There Were None, Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

Her best-known detectives are Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote a series featuring Tommy and Tuppence. In total she wrote 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections.

For Poirot, many readers start with The Mysterious Affair at Styles (his introduction). And Then There Were None is a widely recommended standalone. Collections like Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories or Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories are good for sampling shorter works.

She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1956 and was later promoted to Dame. She is nicknamed the 'Queen of Crime', wrote the world's longest-running play (The Mousetrap), and is listed in the Guinness Book as the best-selling fiction writer with over two billion copies sold.